


Chattoter Trending

by DragonBandit



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Accidental Outing, M/M, Pre-Canon, Raihan takes selfies, Social Media, Twitter, barely
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:27:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22600090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonBandit/pseuds/DragonBandit
Summary: Neither Raihan or Leon have told the greater public about their relationship. Then Raihan posts the wrong picture to Chattoter.
Relationships: Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 16
Kudos: 182
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Chattoter Trending

**Author's Note:**

  * For [clearlykero](https://archiveofourown.org/users/clearlykero/gifts).



Raihan posts the picture to Chattoter late on Friday night. By Saturday morning it’s trending so high that Leon’s publicist tells him that if he’d tried to break the Internet last night, he definitely succeeded. Leon hardly ever uses social media; while he has an account that posts things frequently, it isn’t run by him. He has another private one, but that one’s just for liking Sonia’s pictures of her Yamper and cheering on Hop when he posts literally anything. He has no idea what his short, blond publicist means until he’s being steered down into a chair by surprisingly strong arms and directed to the offending photo. 

For a moment, Leon doesn’t get it. It’s just a picture of him in Raihan’s flat, hat hair mussed, and shirtless except for Raihan’s hoodie that he’d grabbed after rolling out of bed to fend off the evening chill. He’s drinking milk out of the carton, and Raihan’s captioned it “Who taught this man manners SMH.” It’s a decent photo of him, the lightings okay, considering it came from the fridge, and Raihan’s put one of those sparkly filters over the top of him. 

Then Leon scrolls down to see the comments at the behest of his harried intern. The blood drains from his face, and his heart drops into his stomach. He hurriedly scrolls back to the photo, and sees what he’d missed the first time but his millions of fans hadn’t. 

His publicist gives him a flat look.

“I’ll just… yeah,” Leon says, getting up from the chair and rummaging around for his neglected rotom-phone. “Fix this… I guess… somehow…” Welp.

He’s always had an office at the Rose Tower in Wyndon, not that he uses it for much other than storing all the bits of paper that being Champion of Galar seems to accumulate. It has the advantage that it has a door that locks, so no one interrupt his pacing in front of the huge windows that overlook the city as he frantically dials his boyfriends number. 

It’s ten AM. So Raihan historically isn’t even up yet, the lazy bum. The phone rings, and rings, and rings, and Leon feels his anxiety increase with every second. Every second that Raihan doesn’t answer is another a thousand views on that photo, another half a thousand likes and another hundred retweets. The whole of Galar must have seen it by now. Hop’s seen it. His Mum’s seen it. Leon pauses in the horrified realisation that his granny’s seen it. He muffles a quiet whimper into the phone. 

“Hullo?” Raihan’s voice finally comes through the speaker. Drowsy with sleep still and lazy. “Hey, Babe. You forget something at the flat?”

“Nah, I didn’t.” Leon scratches his beard. “So, you know how you posted a picture of me yesterday?”

“Huh?” He can hear the shift of fabric and a quiet, “No Flygon, I’ll feed you in a minute, okay?” before, “Ohhhhh, you mean the one where I publicly shamed you for drinking milk out of the carton like a hooligan?” 

“Yeah.” Leon laughs. “That one. Might want to take a second look at it, babe.” 

“Uhh…” Raihan’s voice goes muffled, and there’s a faint click as he puts Leon on speaker phone to scroll to Chattoter. “I don’t see what’s so crazy that you had to call me from your wo—oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

“Oh.”

In the picture, Leons wearing Raihan’s hoodie. The black one with the yellow tummy, and the ridiculously soft red inner lining. It’s open on Leon’s chest, and the light from the fridge is providing some really nice shadows and highlights. The open zip is directly framing a massive hickey in the shape of Raihan’s distinctive pointed teeth right below Leon’s right nipple. Even the sparkles seem to be framed to draw attention to it, though Leon knows that Raihan didn’t do that intentionally.

“I am… so so sorry.” Raihan says into the silence. 

Neither of them are out. The league hadn’t been the most supporting place when they first started their journey and while it’s gotten better habit is a powerful thing. Leon’s parents know, and Raihan’s suspect even if they’ve never brought up the fact that Raihan lives in a two bedroom apartment with Leon and one of those bedrooms is clearly designed for large dragon type pokemon more than a human. They haven’t even talked about coming out officially before. Leon’s so busy being champion that there’s barely any time in the day to have a quick snog let alone sit around a table and have a serious conversation about their future. Now that choice is out of their hands. Every single one of the comments on Raihan’s post are either speculating about their relationship or outright demanding the two of them to clear things up. Leon had only glanced at a few of them but he feels like the words are seared into his brain. 

So many people wondering if he’s gay. What that means. A few of them calling him horrible words, while an even greater portion shouts those people down. Leon loves his fans but this is not at all how he’d planned this. He hadn’t planned it at all, and now they’re both paying for it. 

“What are we going to do?” Raihan asks, and for the first time in a long while, Leon hears fear in his voice. 

“I’m coming home,” Leon decides. “We can talk more when I get back.” 

“No, Leon that’s flying across half the region.” 

“Charizard doesn’t mind the trip,” Leon says, and he doesn’t give Raihan another chance to protest. 

He knows it’s the right decision when he walks through the flat and Raihan is sitting on the couch in front of the telly still in his pyjamas. He may sleep late but he always changes into his outfit for the day as soon as he’s awake. Today he’s snuggled in a tank top with a Snorlax decal on the front of it demanding to be fed, and long trousers patterned with tiny pink cupcakes. Leon doesn’t take his shoes off at the door and Raihan doesn’t even wrinkle his nose in his usual distaste at Leon’s appalling Southern manners. 

“Hey Babe,” Leon says, throwing an arm around Raihan’s shoulders and pulling him into a hug as he sits next to him. Raihan rests his head on Leon’s shoulder, one hand still holding his rotom-phone, still open to that picture. Leon snags it and puts it on the coffee table next to discarded training bands and spare pokeballs. 

“I’m sorry,” Raihan says again. 

“It’s okay. You made a mistake.”

“A huge mistake,” Raihan corrects. “I just outed both of us.” 

“Not…”

Raihan pokes Leon in the thigh. “Either we tell people we’re dating or we lie. And even if we lie you know people are just going to make stuff up. Remember all those gossip rags about how you were two timing on Sonia with that model?”

“That was years ago.”

“The press doesn’t care about things like that.”

They don’t. Leon drops his hat onto the coffee table as well so he can run a hand through his hair in frustration. He’d learned early on in his career that it didn’t matter what he did or said, someone, somewhere would twist his words to make him sound like he meant the complete opposite of what he had actually said. Raihan’s had his own run-ins with them. That’s why there’s a small—but fanatic—group of people who think that Raihan wants to grind Leon into the dirt if he doesn’t get the champion cape from him soon. It doesn’t matter how often they say they’re friendly rivals, there’s always someone who writes an article about the fierce animosity between the two of them. The league encourages it to an extent, it gets more people to buy tickets for their matches. 

“We have to do something,” Raihan says. 

Leon nods. 

They’re both silent for a long while. The Hoot-Hoot clock that Raihan got from his little sister slowly ticking away the seconds as they struggle to come up with a solution that won’t make things worse. Normally this is when they call in the big guns like Sonia to sort it all out for them. Of the three of them, she’s the only one who has a brain cell all the time instead of just sharing one. But calling Sonia means admitting that they’ve been more than “Really good rivals” for the past decade and Leon’s not sure he can take that kind of angry right now. 

Mad Sonia means horrible things happen to poor Leon. Always.

Raihan’s hair is soft underneath Leon’s chin, and his sea green eyes are closed in defeat, and Leon hates this. 

He’s always hated this. Dodging questions about his preferences and his love life, making up “work things” to hide when he and Raihan go on dates. Not being able to go on dates when they got big enough to be recognised by anyone off the street. It’s all shit. And for what? For a bunch of people to suddenly think they’re entitled to his life in a big statement just because his boyfriend happened to post a picture of him on the Internet like any other lover would do? Really what are the consequences? They can’t make him dump Raihan, and they can’t kick either of them off the league without having to answer a million questions about possible homophobia that they don’t have the good will to dodge right now. Sure maybe less people will buy tickets for their matches, they’ll both get some hate from strangers who have no business being near them, and Leon’s granny will kill him for not being a proper gentleman about it. But if they’re open they can finally do all the things in public that Leon’s secretly wanted to do since they started dating. 

There’s no way he can take back what they know. But he can control it so it belongs to him and Raihan. 

“Give me your hoodie,” Leon says. 

“What? It’s in the closet. Where the clothes are. Why?” Raihan asks. “What does my hoodie have to with this mess?”

“Tell you in a second.” He drops a kiss on Raihan’s forehead and darts to their bedroom. Raihan has a few hoodies, most of them sharing patterns with his favourite dragon type pokemon, or repping his gym. Leon grabs the one in his gym colours and puts it on. It’s both too big and too small: the hem brushes the top of his thighs while the shoulders stretch almost uncomfortably across Leon’s chest even without him zipping it up all the way. As soon as it’s on him, Leon dives back into the closet, only returning when he unearths his spare cape and hat with the crown decals on the brim. 

“Babe there’s no way that’s gonna fit me,” Raihan says when Leon tells him to put it on. “It’s meant to go down to the floor and you know it’s not gonna do that.”

“The hat will,” Leon pouts. 

Raihan laughs slightly, tossing the hat onto his head with a flourish. He gives Leon a winning smile and a wink before the questioning expression comes back. “Why am I wearing this?” 

“Because you’re going to take a photo for me.” 

Raihan looks blank, and blanker still when Leon hands his phone over. Leon swings his arm back around Raihan’s shoulders, pressing their faces close together. “I’m going to kiss you,” He says, “And you’re going to take the photo, and then I’m going to post it to Chattoter.”

“You never use Chattoter,” Raihan says, “I’ve been trying to get you to use this kind of thing since before Ya-Mask went under.”

Leon shrugs. 

Raihan shakes his head, his mouth curving up in a smile that he clearly doesn’t mean to give Leon. He’s clearly thinking about something, and for a moment Leon is worried that he’ll shoot down the brilliant plan. But Raihan doesn’t disappoint. He leans against Leon’s broad chest, obligingly in kissing distance and turns on the screen of the Rotom-Phone. “I know what you’re doing,” he murmurs. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Leon says, and drops a kiss to Raihan’s cheek. He holds it for the required seconds it takes for Raihan to take the picture, and then pouts good-naturedly as Raihan takes three more, and then spends five minutes obsessing over filters. 

When he finally gives Leon the phone back, it’s been long enough that Leon has taught Raihan’s new Trapinch both Shake Hands and Don’t Bite Leon Otherwise You Won’t Get the Tasty Snack He’s Holding. Leon takes his phone back after properly rewarding Trapinch lots of praise for being such a good girl for him, and she’ll be the best Flygon ever when she grows up, he just knows it. Then he spends an agonising forever working out how to get Chattoter to work. 

“You know, I can—”

“Nope!” Leon holds the phone out of Raihan’s impressive reach, curling around it protectively. He’s just about worked out how to attach a caption to an image and exactly what tags he needs to get it trending. Raihan and Hop think that he doesn’t listen when they talk about demographics and optimal posting times but they are wrong, and Leon listens to every word even the ones he can’t understand. He puts in the last, final emoji, and hits send. 

Then he waits for Raihan to get a notification that he’s posted something, for Raihan to open up the Chattoter app, and to burst out into happy laughter. “Leon, you didn’t…”

“Yeah. I did.” Leon says. 

Raihan drags him into a kiss, coming back out of it to say, “Your PA is going to kill you. And me.”

“Worth it,” Leon answers, and crooks a finger in the strap of Raihan’s pyjama tank to tug him into the bedroom.

Raihan goes, still biting back laughter, “This isn’t over you know. We’re going to have to do more than this.”

“Whatever.” Leon says. “Later.”

He doesn’t give Raihan a chance to talk more about it for a long while after. 

* * *

“Heeeey… Hop?” 

“Yeah?”

“Have you checked Chattoter today?”

“No…? … Oh.”

“Pretty cool yeah?”

“Absolutely smashing.”

* * *

Image Description: Former Champion Leon, his arms around Hammerlocke Gymleader Raihan. Leon is pressing a kiss to Raihan’s cheek, and wearing one of Raihan’s hoodies. Raihan is smiling at the camera, one of Leon’s snapback hats perched on his head.

Caption: Yeah, we gay. Keep Scrolling. 


End file.
